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Be brave

Elsa grabbed a handful of her waist-length hair and cut it off at the chin She felt a little crazed but kept cutting until she stood with long strands of pale-blond hair scattered at her feet

A knock at the door startled Elsa so badly that she dropped the scissors They clattered onto the dresser

The door opened Her mother walked into the room, saw Elsa’s butchered hair, and stopped “What have you done?”

“I wanted—”

“You can’t leave the house until it grows out What would people say?”

“Young wo bobs, Mother”

“Not nice young wo you a hat”

“I just wanted to be pretty,” Elsa said

The pity in her mother’s eyes was more than Elsa could bear

TWO

For days, Elsa stayed hidden in her roo that she felt unwell In truth, she couldn’t face her father with her jaggedly cut hair and the need it exposed At first she tried to read Books had always been her solace; novels gave her the space to be bold, brave, beautiful, if only in her own iination

But the red silk whispered to her, called out, until she finally put her books away and began to make a dress pattern out of newsprint Once she’d done that, it seean to sew, just to entertain herself

As she sewed, she began to feel a remarkable sensation: hope

Finally, on a Saturday evening, she held up the finished dress It was the epito-city fashion—a V-neck bodice and dropped waist, a handkerchief hely ht and didn’t have a care in the world Flappers, they were being called Young women who flaunted their independence, who drank hooch and sarettes, and danced in dresses that showed off their legs